This is a tough question. Some of Framingham’s preschools are really just over priced babysitting services in which your kids are entrusted to the lowest paid employees the organization can find and who have absolutely no teaching education, experience or skills. A few others are highly specialized schools with good teachers but have an educational philosophy (Montessori for example) that gives the preschool’s opinion more importance than your on what is right for your child. Oddly enough, both of these groups of preschools (its hard to call the first group anything like “school”) often fail to deliver what your child needs to succeed academically or socially in the years ahead. Glorified babysitting doesn’t give them the basic skills they need for Kindergarten so their first experience of real school is stressful because they have fallen behind. Montessori is great for kids while they are in it but mainstream public and private elementary schools are a real stressful shock for Montessori preschool kids because for the first time they must work with other kids and keep pace with the class.

So how do you decide on a Preschool in Framingham MA?

Our city has a shortage of public preschools and full day preschools are even harder to find. We have applied two criteria to find the preschool options that work best.

One: The preschools must meet or exceed the standards set for public preschools by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

This one is a no brainer – if a preschool cannot meet these standards – do not entrust your child with them. Believe it or not, Framingham does have several “preschools” that do not meet this standard.

Two: The National Association for the Education of Young Children accredits only preschools that have demonstrated a clear commitment and record of educating preschool children in a way that allows them to succeed academically and socially throughout their lives.

If a school is not NAEYC accredited – you should ask why. While these preschools may have many excuses – the real reason is that NAEYC-requires preschools to hire degreed, certified and experienced teachers. This means the operators of these other “preschools” can’t just plug in minimum wage employees to baby sit all day. These minimum wage babysitters are rarely happy with their preschool jobs and your children feel their unhappiness. As such, they are not only losing out on an early childhood education – they are surrounded by unhappy people that would much rather be somewhere else.

So here it is.

These are the Massachusetts approved, NAEYC-accredited Preschools in Framingham Massachusetts